The main topic that has dominated the content covered during January 2024 is various tragic cases (deaths, murders), incidents in Serbian settlements and the mass exodus of the population after visa liberalization. The reduction of various content from the security field (arming of the KSF and the Israel-Hamas conflict) has caused various content with the theme of "tragic cases" including various deaths and murders to return to the top of the misinformation topics. Meanwhile, the incidents in Serbian settlements were misinterpreted by the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia as a tendency to expel Serbs from the settlements, although no facts were provided for this, and the purpose and perpetrators of the act were unknown. Visa liberalization has also influenced the publication of misinformation related to the mass exodus of the population.
As a result of the handling of misinformation content during this month, many different topics related to the social aspect were used to misinform. After social ones, misinformation content from the security field was used the most to misinform.
Based on the monitoring of 65 pieces of misinformation content addressed during January 2024, disinformation has dominated in terms of trends in misinformation content published by various media and publishers, followed by "clickbait" articles and fake news.
In January 2024, in the misinformation content published on and about developments in Kosovo, the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Kosovo is the most talked about institution, related to incidents in Serbian settlements.
The Minister of Defense of the Republic of Kosovo, Ejup Maqedonci, is the most talked about figure in the misinformation found and addressed during January 2024, regarding the arming of the KSF and investments in armaments.
These data came from monitoring report which presents the state of misinformation for the month of January 2024 in content related to Kosovo, based on data provided by the fact-checking platform – hibrid.info. The report is designed by the fact-checking platform hibrid.info, part of the Kosovar NGO “Action for Democratic Society” (ADS) and supported by the American foundation “National Endowment for Democracy” (NED) within the framework of the project “Promoting Objective Journalism and Combating Disinformation”.
Based on the misinformation content found and addressed during January 2024, articles assessed as disinformation (26%) are the ones that have dominated, followed by “clickbait” articles (22%) and fake news (12%). The reason that disinformation has dominated during this month is that many misinformation content related to a variety of social topics have been assessed as disinformation. While “clickbait” articles are from the field of black chronicle related to tragic cases (deaths, murders) and the social one, where the topic of mass population displacement dominates, published mainly in information media in Albanian and Serbian. Fake news is mainly from the field of security related to military exercises on the Kosovo-Serbia border, and the social one about work in Switzerland and other social topics.
Various tragic cases including deaths, murders, accidents, are the topics that have prevailed during the month of January 2024. Articles within the framework of tragic cases of misinformation have dealt with deaths, murders, accidents and disasters in various circumstances or even various social topics, for which the location of the incident is not disclosed in their titles or the titles are misleading with the aim of encouraging clicks from readers, and which have mainly been assessed as "clickbait" and have been published on information portals. Within the framework of the month of January 2024, several conspiracy theories have been published by the Serbian-language media referring to the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia regarding incidents in Serbian settlements, where they are interpreted without facts as being carried out in coordination with official Pristina with the aim of expelling Serbs from Kosovo. The massive departure of the population is the third topic that was most often used for misinformation by the Serbian and Albanian-language media. Serbian-language media were misinformed with claims that the exodus of the population from Kosovo has already begun, while "clickbait" articles about travel from Pristina International Airport were published in real-time media and social media in Albanian.
Almost half of the misinformation content found and addressed during January 2024 is from the social field (43%). The two main topics that have prevailed, incidents in Serbian settlements and the mass exodus of the population, adding to this employment in Switzerland, are from the social field. Most of the misinformation published from this field was assessed as disinformation (11%), "clickbait" (9%) and conspiracy theories (8%) and was published on social media (25%), real media (14%) and suspicious portals (5%). The social field is followed by the security field (22%), in terms of published misinformation content, which was assessed in the majority as disinformation (6%) and fake news (6%). This misinformation content was mainly published on social media related to military maneuvers on the Kosovo-Serbia border, the arming of the KSF, the war in Kosovo, etc. Meanwhile, the misinformation content from the black chronicle has mainly been published in real media, most of which was considered "clickbait". The main topics are various tragic cases for which the location of the incident is not clarified in the title, leaving room for misinformation.
The Minister of Defense, Ejup Makedonija, is the figure who has been most discussed in some of the disinformation content addressed. The Macedonian was involved in claims for investments in weapons systems, as well as in the statement that the KSF will be equipped with the anti-tank “Panzerfaust”, claiming without facts that it was said by him. As for institutions, the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia has been involved in media reports in the Serbian language related to incidents in Serbian settlements in Kosovo, for which it is claimed without facts that they are in coordination with official Pristina with the aim of expelling Serbs from Kosovo. Another institution that has been discussed is the KSF, with claims about being armed with various military equipment and about the salaries of KSF members.
Regarding the control of statements and promises, Prime Minister Albin Kurti had stated that the Pristina - Gjilan highway would be completed and inaugurated within 2023. After verification by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that there is no official announcement that the opening of this highway took place in 2023.